Zoom meetings aren’t end-to-end encrypted, despite marketing • Hacker News Board

Re: Zoom meetings aren’t end-to-end encrypted, despite marketing

#71

Post by t0mas88 » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 11:25 AM UTC

narsil wrote: post #23

I am willing to chalk this up to an honest mistake considering "end-to-end" encryption as being from the client's end to the server, although that's not the accepted use of the term. This appears to be their explanation. I hope their marketing team fixes this now that it's been pointed out to them though.

A single honest mistake in the privacy/security area is already close to inexcusable. Zoom has a proven terrible track record in anything security and privacy related. So letting this one go would be very very naive.

Re: Zoom meetings aren’t end-to-end encrypted, despite marketing

#72

Post by ComodoHacker » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 11:34 AM UTC

0x006A wrote: post #27

how can you have end-to-end encryption with server side processing in conference calls with 50 participants?

You can't, without having every client process all the video and mix all audio. In other words, with current consumer hardware and internet coverage, you can't.

Re: Zoom meetings aren’t end-to-end encrypted, despite marketing

#73

Post by jeffalo » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 11:34 AM UTC

See, that's why I use co-vid. https://co-vid.github.io/join (rickroll)

Re: Zoom meetings aren’t end-to-end encrypted, despite marketing

#74

Post by jeffalo » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 11:36 AM UTC

What, competitors like this? https://co-vid.github.io/join I see where you're coming from. The video calling scene needs something good.

Re: Zoom meetings aren’t end-to-end encrypted, despite marketing

#75

Post by i_use_bing » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 11:39 AM UTC

catmanjan wrote: post #24

Does anyone know of a video conferencing system (3++++ participants) that actually does do end-to-end encryption?

symphony.com is the only one I know of but cost and setup might be limiting factor.

Re: Zoom meetings aren’t end-to-end encrypted, despite marketing

#76

Post by sebiol » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 11:42 AM UTC

maze-le wrote: post #54

cyphar wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It goes far further than stupid comments by our (former) prime minister. The current legislation (passed in 2018) allows the government to force the installation of backdoors through a process that doesn't have any judicial overview or substantial public scrutiny whatsoever.

Number one reason we dropped JIRA.

Out of curiosity, what did you switch to?

Re: Zoom meetings aren’t end-to-end encrypted, despite marketing

#77

Post by antoinealb » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 11:43 AM UTC

bad_user wrote: post #49

BrandiATMuhkuh wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now I know why it was the only video conferencing service that worked in Dubai. Others, like meet, WhatsApp - video are not working for censorship reasons.

I'm pretty sure that Google Meet isn't end-to-end encrypted either. Nothing that Google does is. WhatsApp does claim that videos are end-to-end encrypted as well, although given Facebook announced they'll implement client-side agents for processing user data and given its proprietary nature, I avoid WhatsApp for anything very sensitive as well.

Google Duo is end-to-end encrypted [0]. I don't know about Meet.

Disclaimer: Working at Google, in the same org as Duo.

[0] http://support.google.com/duo/answer/9280240?hl=en

Re: Zoom meetings aren’t end-to-end encrypted, despite marketing

#78

Post by anotherevan » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 11:45 AM UTC

mabcat wrote: post #13

End-to-end encryption has been named as a required feature for telehealth in Australia. Interest in telehealth has gone from zero to infinity over the past two weeks for obvious reasons. So I've been trying really hard to work out if Zoom is E2E, and reached the same conclusions as the article. First, it isn't, and second, Zoom are really going out of their way to obscure that fact. It's great that The Intercept is t…

I have a telehealth appointment (in Australia) this week, and they are using https://doxy.me/

Anybody know much about that one?

Re: Zoom meetings aren’t end-to-end encrypted, despite marketing

#79

Post by davedx » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 11:54 AM UTC

tony101 wrote: post #34

ignoramous wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The UK home secretary Amber Rudd has previously called encryption "completely unacceptable" ... Theresa May has said that the big internet companies give terrorists "safe spaces" to communicate. Ironically, the UK government in fact uses Zoom for all its meetings depsite privacy and security implications. Saudi Arabia, take note. Ref: https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-boris-johnson-zo...

That's terrible for national security. Zoom engineers are based in China: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/26/zoom-key-profit-driver-ahead...

Components of the GB 5g network are also being outsourced to China. Some of the ruling party's MP's are not happy about it.

Re: Zoom meetings aren’t end-to-end encrypted, despite marketing

#80

Post by imglorp » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 11:54 AM UTC

tony101 wrote: post #46

0x006A wrote: post #27

how can you have end-to-end encryption with server side processing in conference calls with 50 participants?

My problem with this is Zoom's misleading claims. If Zoom can't implement end-to-end encryption, it shouldn't claim that it does.

I think they would claim the terminology is ambiguous. If the connection is encrypted between all clients and the central server, a business person might say that's end-to-end, ie all traffic in flight.

The real test is peer-to-peer or not.